#Odisha bracing for possible cyclone

[hauntedfuryz]

Cyclone 'Michaung' Expected to Intensify: Northern Tamil Nadu and Southern Andhra Pradesh Braces for Impact

As December approaches, the weather forecast for the northern Tamil Nadu coast and the southern Andhra Pradesh coast is raising concerns. Cyclone 'Michaung', brewing in the Bay of Bengal, is poised to increase the intensity of rainfall and winds in these regions from December 3 onwards, with a potential landfall anticipated around December 4 evening.

Sunanda, the Managing Director of the Visakhapatnam Cyclone Warning Centre, highlighted the evolving situation, stating that a low-pressure system initially developing in the Bay of Bengal has now intensified into a 'depression'. This system is expected to further strengthen into a 'cyclonic storm', with its trajectory currently moving northwestward.

According to Sunanda's assessment shared with news agency ANI, the depression observed near the southeastern Bay of Bengal and neighboring areas is predicted to intensify into a deep depression within the next 24 hours. Subsequently, within the following 24 hours, it is forecasted to evolve into a cyclonic storm, steadily advancing towards the North Tamil Nadu and Andhra coast.

"Commencing from December 3, the coastal areas of northern Tamil Nadu and southern Andhra Pradesh should anticipate escalating winds and rainfall as the cyclonic system progresses," Sunanda cautioned. "This movement will usher in light to moderate rainfall, possibly escalating to heavy to extremely heavy isolated downpours over south coastal Andhra Pradesh."

The National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), led by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, has already taken proactive steps by reviewing the readiness of state governments and central ministries and departments for the impending cyclone. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has deployed 18 teams to Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Puducherry, with an additional 10 teams on standby, prepared to address any unforeseen emergencies.

Furthermore, a coordinated effort involving rescue and relief teams from the Coast Guard, Army, and Navy, supported by ships and aircraft, remains on high alert, ready to swiftly respond to the situation as it unfolds.

As the looming cyclone 'Michaung' gathers strength, the collective efforts of various agencies and authorities underscore the preparedness and commitment to mitigating potential risks and safeguarding the affected regions and communities. Stay tuned for further updates and advisories as the situation evolves.

[newsaryavart]

चक्रवाती तूफान 'अम्फन' का खतरा बढ़ा, अलर्ट पर ओडिशा और पश्चिम बंगाल

चक्रवाती तूफान ‘अम्फन’ का खतरा बढ़ा, अलर्ट पर ओडिशा और पश्चिम बंगाल

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Image Source : @TWITTER Cyclone Amphan is brewing over the bay of bengal odisha west bengal on high alert

नई दिल्ली।कोरोना वायरस के संकट के बीच मौसम भी कई जगहों पर आफत लेकर आ रहा है। बंगाल की खाड़ी के दक्षिण पूर्व में एक दबाव बना हुआ है जिसके अगले 12 घंटे में चक्रवाती तूफान और उससे अगले 24 घंटे में बड़े चक्रवाती तूफान में बदलने की संभावना जताई जा रही है। इस चक्रवाती…

[newslobster]

Odisha, Bengal Brace For Possible Cyclone, Start Mobilising Resources

Odisha, Bengal Brace For Possible Cyclone, Start Mobilising Resources

The possible cyclone is likely to be christened ‘Sitrang’, as suggested by Thailand. (Representational) Bhubaneswar: Odisha is bracing for heavy rainfall early next week under the impact of a possible cyclone in the Bay of Bengal, which is likely to skirt the state and move towards West Bengal and Bangladesh, the IMD said on Friday. The West Bengal government has initiated the process of…

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/world/asia-pacific/cyclone-fani-live-updates-powerful-storm-lashes-indias-coast/

Cyclone Fani Live Updates: Powerful Storm Lashes India’s Coast

• Cyclone Fani, one of the strongest storms to batter the Indian subcontinent in decades, made landfall near Puri, India, on Friday morning, lashing the coast with winds gusting at more than 120 miles per hour. By Friday night, the storm was over coastal Odisha, according to India’s Meteorological Department, and was expected to weaken.

• Tens of millions of people are potentially in the cyclone’s path, and more than a million were evacuated this week from coastal areas. Large sections of coastal India and Bangladesh are threatened by storm surges, and heavy rains could cause rivers to breach.

• The fast-moving storm struck the coast as the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane. Several hours after it made landfall, the cyclone was downgraded to a “very severe” storm from an “extremely severe” storm.

Aid efforts begin, but full impact is unclear

By Friday night, the full impact of the storm was still being assessed according to local officials. India’s Coast Guard said on Twitter that emergency workers had started providing aid within the first hour of the storm making landfall.

Some relief efforts were hampered by extensive damage. Many large trees were uprooted and toppled onto roads in Puri district, according to a government spokesman, but road restoration work had already begun by Friday night.

Phone lines, internet and electricity were all down in the city, but the government vowed to have services running again soon. At least 160 people were injured by the storm, the government spokesman said.

The military conducted aerial surveys Friday evening to assess the damage, and at least four ships with aid supplies were stationed in affected areas, the navy said on Twitter.

Reports of destruction, and possibly deaths

A relief official for the state of Odisha, where the cyclone made landfall, said Friday afternoon that many trees had been uprooted and houses destroyed, and that there had been unverified reports of deaths. The official, Pravat Ranjan Mohapatra, said the situation would be clearer in a few hours. NDTV, a major Indian news network, reported that three people had been killed.

Along India’s coast, streets were largely empty as residents heeded warnings from the India Meteorological Department.

“In Bhubaneswar, we are all indoors,” said Jagdish Chandra Rout, head of communications for Gopalpur Port Limited. “Nobody is visible on the road, nothing is moving on the road.”

Mr. Rout said he felt the area was much better prepared for the storm than in 1999, when more than 10,000 people died in a cyclone.

“We feel that yes, we may have some difficult days ahead, but no panic,” he said. “We are prepared, we know what is coming when and where.”

Video verified as having been taken in Bhubaneswar that was shared widely on social media shows a wind-whipped crane collapsing on a nearby building.

Others in the city described scenes of destruction. Kalpataru Behra, 25, lives in a roadside shanty in Bhubaneswar. He said that his house and the small snack shop he runs were both seriously damaged by the storm, and that his house was flooded on Friday.

“Tonight we plan to sleep in a community center,” he said. “It is difficult to rebuild. We don’t have money in hand.”

Bangladesh and Rohingya refugees brace for storm’s impact

Aid agencies feared that 1 million Rohingya refugees, a minority group who fled persecution in neighboring Myanmar and now live in makeshift settlements in the low-lying area of Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh, were at risk from the cyclone. The United Nations refugee agency said it had pre-positioned emergency tents in the Bangladesh camps.

The aid agency CARE, which works in the area, said Friday that the risk was high.

“The densely populated Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazaar are susceptible to deadly mudslides triggered by torrential rainfall,” said Zia Choudary, the country director of CARE Bangladesh. “The concentration of the one million displaced Rohingya people in Cox��s Bazaar is now among the densest in the world and, even if the region is not hit directly, the impacts of Cyclone Fani will create havoc.”

The storm was expected make landfall in Bangladesh early Saturday.

Mass evacuation in India and Bangladesh

The Indian authorities evacuated more than a million people from parts of the nation’s eastern coast this week.

Using television, loudspeakers, radio and text messages to warn residents about the dangers of the storm, India’s disaster relief agency and meteorological department warned of the “total destruction” to thatched huts in some districts, major damage to roads, the uprooting of power poles and the potential danger from flying objects.

Cyclone Fani is forecast to drop as much as eight inches of rain on northern parts of the state of Andhra Pradesh and on the state of Odisha.

Schools have been closed, fishermen asked to keep off the water and tourists urged to leave the city of Puri, a Hindu pilgrimage site where an elaborate, centuries-old temple could be at risk of severe damage. Airports in the cyclone’s path were closing and hundreds of trains have been canceled.

Along Odisha’s coast, more than 850 storm shelters have been opened, said Bishnupada Sethi, the state’s special relief commissioner. Each can hold about 1,000 people, along with livestock.

“People are reluctant to leave their homes, though, which is problematic,” Mr. Sethi said on Thursday.

In Bangladesh, Shah Kamal, the disaster management secretary, said that by Friday night more than 1.2 million people in 19 districts had been evacuated to cyclone shelters.

The government there, similarly, suspended fishing operations, closed ports and ordered an early harvest of rice crops.

I

Cyclone’s effects felt on Mount Everest

The cyclone was affecting the weather as far away as Mount Everest, where climbers on their way to the summit turned around after conditions worsened.

At Camp 2, 21,000 feet above sea level, climbers reported an increase in cloud cover and moisture, and high winds tore apart tents. Many climbers from higher up the mountain began making their way down to Base Camp, at 17,600 feet above sea level.

Nepal’s Ministry of Home Affairs banned helicopters from flying in high mountain areas through the end of the weekend and issued a warning to mountaineers and trekkers on the mountain. More than 1,000 people, including climbers, high-altitude guides, support staff and government officials, have reached Everest Base Camp since the spring climbing season began in March.

A history of devastating cyclones

The Bay of Bengal has experienced many deadly tropical cyclones, the result of warm air and water temperatures producing storms that strike the large populations along the coast.

Officials said Cyclone Fani could be the most powerful to strike India since 1999, when a cyclone lingered for more than a day over India’s eastern coast, flooding villages, blowing apart houses and ultimately killing more than 10,000 people.

Since that storm, the authorities in the region have significantly improved disaster preparation and response capabilities, strengthening coastal embankments and preparing evacuation routes, according to a World Bank report. Subsequent major storms have resulted in far fewer deaths.

The state of Odisha was much better prepared for Cyclone Phailin in 2013. About one million people were evacuated, more than twice as many as in 1999, and the storm killed 45 people, the World Bank said.

“All of these efforts bore fruit when Cyclone Phailin made landfall,” the report said.

Cyclone Fani could still bring severe dangers to the region, however, threatening flooding in inland river basins, depending on its path, in the Ganges River delta region, where the Indian city of Kolkata is home to millions.

In 2007, Cyclone Sidr killed at least 3,000 people in nearby Bangladesh, and in 1991, a cyclone killed at least 1,000 there and left millions homeless. In 1970, the so-called Great Bhola Cyclone drove a tidal wave into what was then East Pakistan, in a disaster that killed an estimated 300,000 people, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s World Weather & Climate Extremes Archive.

“Unfortunately this region, especially the delta area, has produced the highest death tolls from tropical cyclones on the planet,” said Mr. Herndon, the storm researcher. “Many people live in regions barely above sea level.”

And Cyclone Fani has already proved “one of the most intense in the past 20 years,” according to Clare Nullis, a spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organization.

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[brajeshupadhyay]

Editor's note: This article was originally published on 11 May 2019. It is being replugged in view of Cyclone Amphan, which has intensified into a ‘super cyclonic storm' and is expected to make landfall on the coasts of West Bengal by Wednesday. Cyclone Amphan, which has been intensifying over the Bay of Bengal, will most probably make landfall over West Bengal on 20 May. As per the MeT department, Amphan, which was present over central parts of South Bay of Bengal and the central Bay of Bengal moved northwards before intensifying into a super cyclonic storm. This would be the first super cyclonic storm in the Bay of Bengal since the 1999 cyclone that hit the Odisha coast, killing more than 9,000 people. Around 200-250mm of rain is expected to lash West Bengal and Odisha between Tuesday night and Thursday morning. A 'yellow' alert has been issued for five districts in the state — Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara. The coastal regions will start experiencing heavy rainfall from Tuesday while heavy downpour is likely to lash six districts Wednesday, including Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar. While a major chunk of this preparedness was possible, thanks to India's weather analysts and a robust network of satellites that could foresee the situation beforehand, the governments also manage to mitigate the weather-related calamities owing to effective public communication. Quick error-free communication between various nodal agencies of the government, the Central and the state power centres as well as the general public is key in mobilising resources to brace up for a natural disaster. Giving a cyclone a short, distinctive name is surprisingly crucial in this process. Why name a calamity? According to National Hurricane Centre, US states that experience shows the practice of naming cyclone makes written as well as spoken communications faster and less subject to error as compared to the older, more cumbersome latitude-longitude identification methods. Furthermore, the use of easily remembered names greatly reduces confusion when two or more tropical storms occur at the same time. The Indian Meteorological Department also reinstates this view adding that it helps in the quick identification of storms in warning messages because names are presumed to be far easier to remember than the numbers and technical terms. Initially, the storms were named arbitrarily in the absence of a global mechanism to monitor and document their occurrences. Then the mid-1900's saw the start of the practice of using feminine names for storms originated. The tropical storms and hurricanes were tracked by year and the order in which they occurred during that year. For at least 150 years, storm names were “fraught with racism and sexism, personal preferences and vendettas,” reports Atlas Obscura. “Their names have also been borrowed from places and saints, wives and girlfriends, and disliked public figures.” It’s not entirely clear why, but the maritime tradition of referring to the ocean as a woman may have played a factor, reported History.com. But in pursuit of a more organised and efficient naming system, meteorologists later decided to identify storms using names from a list arranged alphabetically. Thus, a storm with a name which begins with A, like Anne, would be the first storm to occur in the year. Before the end of 1900's, forecasters started using male names for those forming in the Southern Hemisphere. The History.com report states that the patriarchal practice did not go down without a fight. Women weather analysts and leading women's rights activists helped persuade US weather forecasters not to name tropical storms after only women. Roxcy Bolton, the activist famed with setting up the first-ever rape treatment centre, was one of the dissenters to have brought about the change. Now the tropical cyclones are named neither after any particular person nor with any preference in alphabetical sequence. The names selected are those that are familiar to the people in each region. The names are officially chosen by one of the eleven warning centres spread across the globe under the aegis of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).  All cyclone names are submitted to the World Meteorological Organization Regional Tropical Cyclone Committee for the SE Pacific for final approval. This committee can (and often does) reject or adjust names that are submitted to it and may substitute their own name. The process also involves several countries in the region. A name is selected on the basis of a popular mandate. "The main purpose of naming a tropical cyclone is basically for people to easily understand and remember the tropical cyclone in a region, thus to facilitate tropical cyclone disaster risk awareness, preparedness, management and reduction," WMO says in its explanation of how cyclones are named. The WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones at its twenty-seventh Session held in 2000 in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman agreed in principle to assign names to the tropical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. After long deliberations among the member countries, the naming of the tropical cyclones over the north Indian Ocean commenced from September 2004. For tropical cyclones developing in the North Indian Ocean, countries like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan and Thailand send their names to the regional tropical cyclone committee. At present, all eight countries have submitted eight names each for naming future cyclones. The name Vayu was chosen from this list containing 64 names. The first name will start from the first row of column one and continue sequentially to the last row in column eight. Example, this will be as Onil, Hibaru, Pyar, Baaz …………. Amphan. The names which have been already used from the list are highlighted. These lists are used sequentially, and they are not rotated every few years as are the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific lists. The name Vayu was suggested by India, which locally means wind, or may also refer to the wind god, Vayu. Do you want to name a cyclone? If you want to suggest the name of a cyclone to be included in the list, the proposed name must meet some fundamental criteria. The name should be short and readily understood when broadcast. Also, the names must not be culturally sensitive and not convey some unintended and potentially inflammatory meaning. One may also suggest a name to Director General of Meteorology, India Meteorological Department, for consideration.

http://sansaartimes.blogspot.com/2020/05/cyclone-amphan-likely-to-hit-west.html

[brajeshupadhyay]

Cyclone Amphan likely to hit West Bengal tomorrow: Why do we name catastrophes and how cyclonic storms get their names

Editor's note: This article was originally published on 11 May 2019. It is being replugged in view of Cyclone Amphan, which has intensified into a ‘super cyclonic storm' and is expected to make landfall on the coasts of West Bengal by Wednesday.

Cyclone Amphan, which has been intensifying over the Bay of Bengal, will most probably make landfall over West Bengal on 20 May.

As per the MeT department, Amphan, which was present over central parts of South Bay of Bengal and the central Bay of Bengal moved northwards before intensifying into a super cyclonic storm.

This would be the first super cyclonic storm in the Bay of Bengal since the 1999 cyclone that hit the Odisha coast, killing more than 9,000 people. Around 200-250mm of rain is expected to lash West Bengal and Odisha between Tuesday night and Thursday morning.

A 'yellow' alert has been issued for five districts in the state — Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara. The coastal regions will start experiencing heavy rainfall from Tuesday while heavy downpour is likely to lash six districts Wednesday, including Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar.

While a major chunk of this preparedness was possible, thanks to India's weather analysts and a robust network of satellites that could foresee the situation beforehand, the governments also manage to mitigate the weather-related calamities owing to effective public communication. Quick error-free communication between various nodal agencies of the government, the Central and the state power centres as well as the general public is key in mobilising resources to brace up for a natural disaster. Giving a cyclone a short, distinctive name is surprisingly crucial in this process.

Why name a calamity?

According to National Hurricane Centre, US states that experience shows the practice of naming cyclone makes written as well as spoken communications faster and less subject to error as compared to the older, more cumbersome latitude-longitude identification methods. Furthermore, the use of easily remembered names greatly reduces confusion when two or more tropical storms occur at the same time.

The Indian Meteorological Department also reinstates this view adding that it helps in the quick identification of storms in warning messages because names are presumed to be far easier to remember than the numbers and technical terms.

Initially, the storms were named arbitrarily in the absence of a global mechanism to monitor and document their occurrences. Then the mid-1900's saw the start of the practice of using feminine names for storms originated. The tropical storms and hurricanes were tracked by year and the order in which they occurred during that year.

For at least 150 years, storm names were “fraught with racism and sexism, personal preferences and vendettas,” reports Atlas Obscura. “Their names have also been borrowed from places and saints, wives and girlfriends, and disliked public figures.”

It’s not entirely clear why, but the maritime tradition of referring to the ocean as a woman may have played a factor, reported History.com.

But in pursuit of a more organised and efficient naming system, meteorologists later decided to identify storms using names from a list arranged alphabetically. Thus, a storm with a name which begins with A, like Anne, would be the first storm to occur in the year.

Before the end of 1900's, forecasters started using male names for those forming in the Southern Hemisphere. The History.com report states that the patriarchal practice did not go down without a fight. Women weather analysts and leading women's rights activists helped persuade US weather forecasters not to name tropical storms after only women. Roxcy Bolton, the activist famed with setting up the first-ever rape treatment centre, was one of the dissenters to have brought about the change.

Now the tropical cyclones are named neither after any particular person nor with any preference in alphabetical sequence. The names selected are those that are familiar to the people in each region.

The names are officially chosen by one of the eleven warning centres spread across the globe under the aegis of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).  All cyclone names are submitted to the World Meteorological Organization Regional Tropical Cyclone Committee for the SE Pacific for final approval. This committee can (and often does) reject or adjust names that are submitted to it and may substitute their own name. The process also involves several countries in the region. A name is selected on the basis of a popular mandate.

"The main purpose of naming a tropical cyclone is basically for people to easily understand and remember the tropical cyclone in a region, thus to facilitate tropical cyclone disaster risk awareness, preparedness, management and reduction," WMO says in its explanation of how cyclones are named.

The WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones at its twenty-seventh Session held in 2000 in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman agreed in principle to assign names to the tropical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. After long deliberations among the member countries, the naming of the tropical cyclones over the north Indian Ocean commenced from September 2004.

For tropical cyclones developing in the North Indian Ocean, countries like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan and Thailand send their names to the regional tropical cyclone committee. At present, all eight countries have submitted eight names each for naming future cyclones. The name Vayu was chosen from this list containing 64 names.

The first name will start from the first row of column one and continue sequentially to the last row in column eight. Example, this will be as Onil, Hibaru, Pyar, Baaz …………. Amphan. The names which have been already used from the list are highlighted. These lists are used sequentially, and they are not rotated every few years as are the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific lists.

The name Vayu was suggested by India, which locally means wind, or may also refer to the wind god, Vayu.

Do you want to name a cyclone?

If you want to suggest the name of a cyclone to be included in the list, the proposed name must meet some fundamental criteria. The name should be short and readily understood when broadcast. Also, the names must not be culturally sensitive and not convey some unintended and potentially inflammatory meaning.

One may also suggest a name to Director General of Meteorology, India Meteorological Department, for consideration.

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